Arcee - Botcon Exclusive - Figure

Long before the vampy Blackarachnia, schoolmarmish Airazor, badass butch Strika, and downright freaky Botanica, there was Arcee. Like most female cartoon characters of her time, Arcee was sweet, supportive, and kind, the type of Autobot who normally wouldn't hurt a fly. Fate, it seems, is not
without a sense of irony.

The Box
Arcee comes in an Ultra-sized box that is mostly starry black in colour. The front shows a CGI Arcee standing in the middle of a blue cyber-web. Opening the flap reveals the toy inside, as well as details on her three "Finishing Moves." There's the Psilent Strike, the Widow's Whip, and the Cyclone Kick. On the back of the box, there's another CGI rendering of Arcee, along with a diagram showing her weaponry, and a G1-style tech spec.

Since several people have already posted her tech spec, I won't recite it word for word. Basically, Arcee's experienced the same type of ordeal as Bruce Wayne and Enzo Matrix, in that she's lost someone (who in this case happens to be reviled by most of the fan community) very close to her Spark.

The experience has turned her into a grim aggressor-loner-warrior type. Her official function is Valkyrie. She's got the ability to foresee other TFs' deaths, as well as being highly skilled in the lost arts of Tekkaido and Crystalocution, which is apparently the Autobot version of Metallikato. So if Bludgeon hadn't been blown to smith ereens by Megatron in the G2 comic, he'd likely have been sliced and diced into tiny bite-sized bony chunks by Arcee.

Finally there's the voice box, which I and several other people spent several minutes trying to locate on her before someone realised it was housed inside the box. Exposure to strong light causes the box to utter the phrase, "Don't underestimate me. I'm more than just a pretty face. Arcee, maximize!" Oh, if only Susan Blu, who speaks the lines, had made it to the
convention. She'd probably have beaten out Michael Bell for autographs.

Beast Mode
Arcee is an extensive recolour of TM2 Blackarachnia (whose review Robobase should be uploading very soon, hopefully). She's mostly white with pink and purple vac metal. Her claws and chelicerae both have blue on them, as does her abdomen. She has orange spots on her head. At first I thought her spider legs had remained the same colour, but upon close comparison with BA, it turns out Arcee's legs are a slightly darker shade of purple. As far as recolours go, this really is one of the nicest ones. The pink and white and blue go very well together, and make the toy fairly recognisable as Arcee.

Arcee's Widow's Whip move can be performed by detaching her spider head from her body, extending it out on a string, and using her chelicerae to seize her Vehicon victims. But that's not the coolest part! Whereas the BA toy has very floppy legs, Arcee's are much stiffer. So stiff in fact, that by
rotating them around and positioning them carefully, the toy can actually stand on its own legs! She stands face-to-face with BM BA, tall enough for Strika to pass right beneath her! How cool is that?

Transformation
Same as TM2 BA's. Her abdomen opens up to reveal her robot body, her spider head attaches to her back, he pedipalps become her robot arms.

Robot Mode
Arcee's robot body is mostly white with pink on her mask, thong, and boots, and silver on her thighs and boots. Her eyes are ebony black, reflecting her darker nature, and she's wearing pink lipstick. She doesn't have the silly cyber-bra that came with BA, thankfully. Rather, the holes that connect to the cyber-bra have been filled in completely. An Autobot symbol is emblazoned above her left breast. The hourglass on her navel is silver. Her dual spark gimmick has undergone a significant change. On one side, it's white with a red Autobot symbol painted on it. The other side has a pink Maximal spark crystal on it.

Arcee can perform her Cyclone Kick by turning her waist clockwise a couple of times and then pushing back on her head. Like TM2 BA, she's not the most stable of toys. Nor does it help that her hip joints are even looser than
BA's. A little coating of super glue on the joints helps though.

Overall Suspsy Sez
Arcee was a great choice for a Botcon exclusive toy, and TM2 BA was the perfect toy with which to create her. The colour scheme is very attractive and reminiscent of the original Arcee, and the fact that this spider can actually stand on its own legs makes it a superior toy to TM2 BA. The price is admittedly steep, as with all Botcon toys, but c'mon, this is Arcee we're talking about! If you weren't able to make it to Botcon and snag this toy, then you may want to seriously consider trying to get one from the Botcon site or even off eBay. It's a worthy addition to anyone's collection.